Father's Day 2011

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I know. Father's Day was over a month ago. And you know what? I still have Sean's birthday AND Independence Day to post about! So sue me. This post will be fairly short and sweet because, really, that's all Sean got for Father's day. He had to work on Sunday for the first time all year. Poor guy. :( We made the most of the time we had with him and made him french toast, sausage AND bacon for breakfast.
I should've taken this picture when they were fresh out of the box, but we got him some much-needed shoes for Father's Day. I just took the picture this morning, so he's already been working hard in them for a month. Oh, and do you like Ethan's card for him? Yep, Optimus Prime! It's like that card was made for Ethan to give to him!
So Ethan and I went off to church by ourselves and Sean went to work. After church, we whipped up a batch of chocolate-chocolate chip cookies with peanut butter chips and surprised him at work with them! He took a little while to track down because he was life-guarding at the pool in the rec center and was shocked to see us walk out of the locker room!

We also brought him this little gem!We were tricky and left the pop-top sealed and put the goodies in from the bottom. The tag says: "Goodies in a can for our favorite family man." So clever, I know. This is what it looked like when he popped the top.
Even though his Father's Day was short and sweet, Ethan and I sure appreciate what a good daddy Sean is!! He is kind, patient, funny, loving and fun to be with. He works hard for our family and we love him very much!!

As far as gifts for my dad and Sean's dad go, well... they are still sitting in our house! They are kind of an odd size to ship, so I am bringing my dad's with me on my next Oregon visit and Loren's will go in a package I am slowly getting together to send down to Simi... I am so grateful for everything that both of these men do for our family and we love them very much!!


PS: I had to include this... It's a card I found while looking for Father's Day and I could totally see it coming from my sister, Christine, to give to my Dad! Ha ha ha!!

"Dad, every year you say something like, 'I don't want anything for Father's Day,' or 'Don't go spending any money on me.' Well, I just have one thing to say..."

"...no problem. (By the way, could you reimburse me for this card? Also, the card shop was next to a shoe store, so I'll need a little extra.) Happy Father's Day from your Daughter."

"Vintage" Army Ambulance

Yesterday afternoon Ethan and I were at our friends' house, the Dahls. Jenn had invited us over to swim in their pool (18 ft. across and 4 ft. deep). Seeing as it was actually bright, sunny and HOT today, we jumped at the offer!! Jenn even threw in lunch for me - a turkey, bacon and avocado sandwich. Yummy! So Ethan didn't actually end up swimming at all {the 4 ft. deepness of the pool kinda freaks him out - even with a life jacket} but still had a fun time eating his own lunch outside and playing with the kids.

And then this showed up in their driveway!How cool is that?! A friend of theirs just bought it and is driving it back to his house, but Eric (who is a mechanic) did a little work on it for him. Of course, we had to take some pictures! It's not every day that you get the opportunity to be up close and personal with something that looks like it just drove off the set of M.A.S.H.
Last picture - I told all the kids to "show me their muscles!" They obliged. My favorite is Amy, kissing her bicep. :)

Breath Holding

So I'm watching this movie {Firewall} and the kid on it has an allergy attack after eating nuts - he stopped breathing and passed out until they gave him his epi shot. Something about watching this scene really got to me because it totally reminded me Ethan's breath holding spells. It's been a long time since he's had one and when he does have one, they're really, really minor. Not at all like when they first started and were so scary. Actually, just last week Ethan had one - the worst he'd had in probably a year. We were playing softball at a church activity and he was playing with another kid and got hurt. Anyway, the combination of this attack and the movie led me to looking for videos online of breath holding spells {is that weird?! I mean, honestly, Sean and I had actually thought of getting one of Ethan's on video, but were never in the frame of mind to grab the camera when they happened} and doing a little more research about it. I couldn't find any videos that matched Ethan's breath holding, but this one came pretty close...



Ethan's always started out very similar to this. Crying and then no crying, no breathing and he would get really stiff and rigid. His eyes would roll into the back of his head, his lips would turn blue and he would pass out. Once he passed out, his whole body would go completely limp and then he would slowly come to looking very dazed. Also, unlike in this video, we almost always held him. First, I didn't want him to accidentally hurt himself and mainly I wanted to be holding him and able to comfort him the second he came out of it.

I know, really, really random post. But this was a big part of our lives for over a year and it had been a while since I had thought about it.
New to our blog? Here are links to other posts about breath holding.
May 28, 2008
May 30, 2008
July 20, 2008
October 7, 2008
{Wow... I didn't realize I hadn't wrote about it in so long. There may be a mention of it here and there, but I don't think I have any other specific posts.}

4100 pages/7 books/39 days/1 epic final movie....

Surely by the title you have guessed that I am talking about HARRY POTTER!!!

Well, I did it. I set a goal and I achieved it. I re-read the first six books of the Harry Potter series and then finally, for the first time, read the seventh book!! It was so, so good! I stayed up into the wee hours of the morning to finish the last one and I think I cried the whole last 120+ pages of the book. I couldn't even tell you what my favorite part was, though the view into Snape's life through the pensieve was definitely at the top. I realized that Dumbledore dying the in the end of the 6th book affected me more than I thought and I was still pretty ticked by the time the 7th book came out - this was actually part of my aversion to reading the 7th book!
So I finished the books a week before the movie came out and had already watched the first two movies and within the next week and a half I watched the other five movies. Then, last weekend [for our date night], Sean and I saw the final movie. SO GOOD!! Seriously, I leaned over to Sean about half-way through and told him, "I already want to see it again!" It was just so well done! Definitely one of the best, if not the best, of the movies. And I loved that it stayed so close to the book - though there were some changes that made me miss the book version. I laughed, cried, cheered, clapped... It was awesome!
To review...
* 7 books in the Harry Potter series
* 4100 pages total
* 39 days for me to read it all {a lot of people have asked how I read so much without shirking too much on my wife/mother duties, so let me tell you... 1. I watched almost no TV that month. 2. I stayed up at least an extra hour most nights that I read. 3. I read during any little downtime I had. Dinner in the oven and timer set for 20 minutes? I was reading. Ethan playing outside? I was sitting outside and reading. 4. I neglected my blog!}
* Favorite books: #1, #3, #6 and #7
* Favorite movies: #1, #2, #6 and #7.1 and #7.2
* Least favorite book: #4 {Though I liked this one a lot more the 2nd time through, the whole Tri-Wizard tournament plot just wasn't my fave.}
* Least favorite movie: #3 {This is one of my favorite books, so it was so disappointing that the movie did not live up to it.}
* New favorite supporting characters:
- McGongagall!!! {I really loved her character in the last 3 books - especially book 7. And her fighting scene with Snape in the last movie is awesome!!}
- Snape. {Seriously, after learning his secrets through the pensieve how can you not love this man for all he sacrificied?!}
- Neville. {So glad he finds his confidence.}
- Ginny. {She is much more rebel/clever/talented than I remember.}
- Fred & George. {They may be "drop-outs", but they are dang talented and have good hearts. So sad when Fred dies.}

Overall, I am so glad I re-read the first six books before diving into the seventh one. I had forgotten just how much I enjoyed the series and getting to read the books back to back made it that much more enjoyable.

Oh, and Harry's pep talk to his son, Albus Severus... Loved it!!!

June Recap

We've already had a fairly busy summer and June was no exception... We had visitors, outings, holidays, a wedding, a birthday and lots of fun! Not to mention that School's Out!! Not a huge deal in our house (yet!) but still exciting for Sean to get a little break from work (before his summer job starts up).

* Date-night-movies-of-the-month: You read that right. Movies. Plural. :) First up, we saw the new X-Men movie.Pretty good! I loved the background story on a lot of the characters and it was sad to see how some of the good guys ended up as bad guys. And especially sad to see the moment when Professor X was injured and you knew he would forever be in a wheelchair.

The second movie was during our Seattle weekend {where we ran into Kate from Our Best Bites} and we saw Super 8. Now, Sean was much more excited to see this than I was, but after some of the previews he showed me online I was very intrigued and we were not disappointed!! I would put this one above X-Men as far as a "must-see" just because it's a little different that a lot of the movies out this summer. The kids are the main characters and they do an awesome job. It is an alien movie and although I am not much of an alien movie fan, the storyline kept me interested enough to not the nasty-looking alien bother me (too much).

* Visitors: First we watched the oldest Coleman boy [Brandon, 10] one afternoon {which worked out great because Sean was off that day} and Ethan got to experience being a little brother. These two got along great!! They played cars, Transformers and a couple of DVD games, played outside and in the kiddie pool, ate pizza and watched a movie.

These were all the cars, trucks and Transformers all lined up for the mega-battle!!

Ethan all ready to go outside and play in the water.

Next, we had Sean's friend from high school, Garrett, come for dinner and stay the night. He had been on a cross-country road trip and we were one of the last stops before heading back to SoCal. It was fun to talk with him and hear all about his adventures in cross-country travel. In the morning, he broke out his accordion and showed Ethan how it works.
* Brooke's Wedding: The last Sunday in June, the teacher that Sean works with at WSSB got married and Sean ended up being kinda in the wedding party. He was an attendant and pushed Brooke's grandpa in his wheelchair down the aisle so he could give her away.Sean also wore his new charcoal gray dress slacks and gray/white tie (birthday gifts) and looked quite dashing, if I do say so myself!

* June Library Books Review: "I Am Not Afraid Of This Haunted House" was hands down our favorite! It's a rhyming book, very cleverly written and funny. It is one I will be looking to add to our collection. "Tip Tip Dig Dig", "Excuse Me!", "Tissue, Please!" and "The True Story of the Three Little Pigs" were also pretty good. The other three were duds.

* Random Pictures:

Ethan showing off his monster puppet.

He was quite proud of himself for climbing on top of this dresser we inherited {that I need to do a little make-over on}. Yeah, we quickly vetoed him doing that again!

Statue at the Portland Box Office {I was getting our Les Miserables tickets - it was basically sold out, but we did get manage to get a couple tickets... clear in the back!}.

* Events already covered or still to come:
- Seattle Trip
- Father's Day
- Sean's Birthday

Corona Extra

This week, while sweeping and mopping the floors, I decided to pull the drawer out from under the oven so I could sweep underneath it... probably for the first time since we moved in! Of course, I found a lot of dust, crumbs and popcorn, a couple of bouncy balls and this...

Which, just to clarify, is NOT ours!! So, clearly, the previous tenants hated sweeping underneath the oven just as much as I do. Ha ha!!

Seattle Getaway, plus meeting the Our Best Bites ladies!

The second weekend in June, Sean and I got a rare {as in, it's never happened before!} opportunity for a weekend away, sans Ethan! See, the ladies from Our Best Bites were going to be in Seattle for a few book signings and I knew this was probably the closest I would get so I arranged with my mom to take Ethan for the weekend. As luck would have it, Sean came down with a cough that week, but he was smart and went to the doctor right away and was able to get on antibiotics {bronchitis, poor guy}. Even still, he stayed home from work on Thursday, sicker than a dog - coughing and throwing up and having no energy at all. Ethan and I let him keep to our room where it was nice and dark and he was able to rest all day. My fingers were crossed that he would be better for the weekend. Ha! If I had only known the worst was still to come. I went to bed Thursday night feeling very nauseated and having trouble sleeping. About 1am or so, I finally got up to go to the bathroom, and, well, without painting too much of a nasty picture, I had to lunge for the trash can. I spent the next five hours going back and forth between the recliner in the living room and the extra bathroom and with my "puke bowl" always in tow. It was a long, miserable night. By morning I was exhausted and still super nauseated and had zero appetite. We were supposed to meet my mom in Woodburn for the "drop-off" sometime before noon. Yeah, that didn't happen - I think it was closer to 2:30/3pm. Ethan was so excited to go with grandma Julie and this was the very first picture I took with our new camera (because she had brought it with her).We parted ways and Sean and I drove back to Vancouver, packed our stuff, made a quick Target run for a mini memory card (our old camera used the full-size memory cards) and Special K cereal/milk since that was the only thing that sounded good to me and then we made the drive to Seattle. Well, actually, we drove to Bellevue. We did the Priceline thing again and were not having luck getting a hotel in downtown Seattle for the price we wanted and ended up being able to get a 4-star hotel in downtown Bellevue for less than the prices we were putting in for a 3-star in Seattle. We loved it!! Gorgeous, gorgeous hotel right in the heart of downtown.

This was part of the lobby/atrium. Beautiful and so serene.

And our room. Lovely, spacious and comfy.

Seriously. This bed was so, so comfy! I love how hotels have gotten rid of the nasty bedspreads and just do all white sheets/down comforter with the little decorative thing on the end. It just feels so much cleaner. Yeah, we slept well in this bed.

The view from our room.

Yes, I realize this picture is completely random, but I took it for my sister, Lizzy {who is currently obsessed with cowboys, hicks, boots, Cabelas, etc. I saw these boots in one of the magazines in our room, thought they were cute and thought of her. Plus, I love how well the picture turned out on just the auto setting of our new camera}!

So the next morning (Saturday) we slept in and were so happy that we both seemed to have made a miraculous recovery! My appetite was back, no more nausea and feeling back to normal. Sean still had a bit of a cough, but the antibiotics had definitely made a big difference. So we ate breakfast in our room and then took all the connecting sky bridges to the mall across the street. One of our first stops was Crate & Barrel. I had never been inside one. That is a dangerous store! Well, dangerous if we actually had money to spend. It's a lot easier to say "no" when most everything in the store is pricey. But Sean did indulge me spending some money on these way cute juice glasses we found. I couldn't resist.

I got two of the orange juice glasses and then one each of the apple and cherry so I'd have a full set. Drinking my orange juice in the morning in the orange glass is so much better than just a regular glass! Plus, added bonus, portion control! I think they only hold about 4 oz. I love juice, so this keeps me from pouring a huge glass and drinking my calories. I also got this adorable dish towel. Again, I couldn't resist the bright colors and cute summery design.
One thing we noticed walking around the mall and connecting buildings to the hotel is that they are way more artsy than in Vancouver! Check out all this beautiful glass work.That last picture is my favorite.

We ate lunch at the mall and looked around a little and then headed back to our hotel so we could get to the book signing. Check out this mega-long bridge we crossed to get from Bellevue to Seattle. It was about 15 minutes away and at a Barnes and Noble right by the University of WA and it happened to be graduation day so there was tons of traffic. Nice. Anyway, we got there just after it had started and I was so afraid there would be a HUGE line. What luck! We found them and there was only 6-7 ladies already standing around their signing table. Well, Sean and I sorta stood back from them and got our books out (I had my own and three friends' books to be signed!) and then I hear Sara say, "are you Jenn?" as she points at me! Well, the small crowd parted and everyone turned to look at us. It was SO cool!! The other ladies there were all saying, "how does she know you? Are you just a fan?" And then Kate and Sara explained that they recognized that I commented pretty frequently and I usually write more than just "yum! That looks good." so they had blog-stalked me a little. ;) Of course, it helps too, that I won a cookware set from them last year. Oh, and that some random woman on FB contacted me to see if I was related to Sandy Toftdahl (my grandma) and after further emails I discovered she's in Sara's ward at church. So, yeah, I have a little connection to the Our Best Bites ladies. Anyway, we let the other women finish and then Kate and Sara signed the books we had and then since there was no crowd (apparently they'd been pretty busy at their first two signings) we got to stay and chat for a while. I'm so glad we went and it was fun to meet them! They are super nice and funny. Plus, their cookbook really is awesome!

Well, after the signing we headed back to our hotel and then to the mall to do a little shopping (this is when I got my Crate & Barrel goodies) and to get Ethan a little somethin'-somethin' {not like he wasn't already being spoiled at Grandma and Grandpa's} and to get some gourmet cupcakes {Sean's was chocolate w/ peanut butter frosting, mine was strawberry and then we got a chocolate one to share}. Dinner was at the Crab Pot {the restaurant we attempted to go to (with disastrous results) the last time we were in Seattle} and I'm sad to say we probably won't go back. The food was pretty good but not enough to make it a "must-go" next time we're in the Seattle area. Plus, the sourdough bread before our entrees came was stale and did not taste good.So after dinner we went out to a movie - Super 8. It was really good! And afterward, while Sean was in the bathroom, I heard someone call my name and it was none other than Kate from Our Best Bites! Oh yeah, we're tight like that.

Then, after all that (lunch date, book signing, shopping, dinner and a movie) you'd think we'd call it a night and go back to our hotel. Nope! After the movie we decided to live it up and went to a dueling piano bar we had seen earlier in the day.SO not our scene {I mean, c'mon. It was a bar. That is SO NOT our scene!} but we waited in line, had the bouncer check our I.D., paid the cover charge and went in. Seriously, great entertainment! The dueling pianists were GREAT!! Both of them were so good and so talented! And, of course, there was a variety of half-drunks/drunks to watch. We should've had a scavenger hunt checklist...
- girls in stilettos thinking they are the best dancers ever: check!
- bachelorette party w/ the bride-to-be wearing a veil covered in male anatomy: check!
- conservative woman who looks likes this is not her scene and then totally busts a move once the girls-in-stilettos-that-think-they-are-the-best-dancers-ever take a break: check!
- guy in khakis and a short-sleeve button up shirt that really can not dance: check!
- majority of the guys thinking they are either a. the funniest guy there, b. the best-looking guy there or c. both: check!
- LDS couple who look totally out of their element and order a couple of Roy Rogers: check! {oh, wait - that was us!!}


This was their last song of the night - go figure!

The next morning we checked out of our hotel and headed home, but not before I snapped a picture of this: It was located right by the door. You stuck your key in there when you were in the room and then took it off when you left and it would automatically turn off the lights. And let me tell ya, it worked! Sean went to go get ice while I was blow-drying my hair just after my shower and just grabbed this key without thinking. The bathroom lights went out and it was almost pitch black in there! The go-green hippie in me thought this was a pretty nifty, energy-saving idea.

Monday night we met my parents in Salem (half-way between our houses) at Five Guys. I loved our weekend away and it was so fun to run around downtown Bellevue with just my man, acting like care-free, child-less newlyweds {well, sorta...} but I missed my Ethan and was so happy to see him again!! Of course, he was all over his surprise {we got him a pirate set from the Disney store complete w/ eye patch, earring, skull ring, treasure map, telescope and clanging foam sword}. It was a little more than we originally planned on spending, but we loved that these were toys that he could play with and use his imagination - plus, he already has a Capt. Hook hat}!
It was a great trip. I love having Seattle so much closer now - it makes for a great get-away location. Sorry this post was so long and kudos to you if you got through it all, but I wanted to get everything down in one post!